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Thursday, March 13, 2014

The other day I was shopping online for a new pen, even though, I know i could just go down to a store and pick up a load of Bic Pens cheap. I work at a waste water treatment plant and the pen is a very important part of daily bag of tricks. I have broke several pens over the years and I was looking for something a little tougher. So during my search I came across several Tactical Pen hits. Really? I guess in today's market you can spray paint just about anything Matte Black call it "tactical" and you got a winner. A lot of manufactures are making these pens: Uzi, Smith and Wesson, Tuff Writer, Gerber, and so on. They range in price from $20-$200. In addition to being a pen they can be used as a striking tool. Some have a sharp point and are dubbed defense pens. While others have a point to break glass. I thought the idea of the tactical pen was equally ridiculous and cool. I searched amazon and found a pen which would suit me well.
I paid $25 for the Smith and Wesson stylus tip tactical pen. It came a day later with the amazon prime free shipping. The most notable feature of the pen is the stylus tip in the cap. I have a lot of touch screens to deal with a work, and the pen will see a lot of use. The construction of the pen is Aluminum and is in no way cheap. This is a heavy duty pen. The back end of the pen ends in a point and can be used as a striking weapon or to break glass. The pocket clip is heavy duty like the rest of the pen and will not slip out. The cap unscrews to expose the pen and screws on to the back end to hold it while writing. It seems to be a little thicker than most pens and is heaver at 1.2 oz loaded. You can get it in Black, pink, and gold.
So I think the pen would be a winner for anyone that works like a man. Operators, Mechanics, Line Men, Emergency workers and so on would find the world of tactical pens a handy tool. I will use the pen at work for a while and post a follow up on my real world experience with this type of pen. I predict i will not use the striker weapon feature, but i will use the stylus end a lot.

Friday, March 7, 2014

Is winter slowly losing it's death grip? To half of the country the answer is NO. It was supposed to be a nice day today but cloud cover kept the strong sun from heating the earth up. The good news is a lot of the ice in the tidal zones is breaking up and it gave me and a buddy a chance to get on the clam. We dropped his 14ft aluminum boat in with a hoist and got going. It was a cold ride over, but we made it. We rocked the neoprene waders today as there is still ice along the shore and the water is very cold. We got our fill of clams with little effort and i was happy to see they did not get killed off from the cold. The oysters were another story. Many of the oysters exposed at low tide did not make it, and it looks to be a lean oyster year unless you find them in water a few feet deep. Even though the weather still sucks it was nice to get a load of winter clams.